1.0The Sourcehttps://the-source.netrich600338<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="aWdFOlmVF1"><a href="https://the-source.net/football-causes-brain-damage-decision-time-school-administrators-parents/">Football Causes Brain Damage: It’s Decision Time for School Administrators and Parents</a></blockquote><iframe sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" src="https://the-source.net/football-causes-brain-damage-decision-time-school-administrators-parents/embed/#?secret=aWdFOlmVF1" width="600" height="338" title="“Football Causes Brain Damage: It’s Decision Time for School Administrators and Parents” — The Source" data-secret="aWdFOlmVF1" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" class="wp-embedded-content"></iframe><script type="text/javascript"> /*! This file is auto-generated */ !function(c,l){"use strict";var e=!1,o=!1;if(l.querySelector)if(c.addEventListener)e=!0;if(c.wp=c.wp||{},c.wp.receiveEmbedMessage);else if(c.wp.receiveEmbedMessage=function(e){var t=e.data;if(!t);else if(!(t.secret||t.message||t.value));else if(/[^a-zA-Z0-9]/.test(t.secret));else{for(var r,s,a,i=l.querySelectorAll('iframe[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),n=l.querySelectorAll('blockquote[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),o=0;o<n.length;o++)n[o].style.display="none";for(o=0;o<i.length;o++)if(r=i[o],e.source!==r.contentWindow);else{if(r.removeAttribute("style"),"height"===t.message){if(1e3<(s=parseInt(t.value,10)))s=1e3;else if(~~s<200)s=200;r.height=s}if("link"===t.message)if(s=l.createElement("a"),a=l.createElement("a"),s.href=r.getAttribute("src"),a.href=t.value,a.host===s.host)if(l.activeElement===r)c.top.location.href=t.value}}},e)c.addEventListener("message",c.wp.receiveEmbedMessage,!1),l.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded",t,!1),c.addEventListener("load",t,!1);function t(){if(o);else{o=!0;for(var e,t,r,s=-1!==navigator.appVersion.indexOf("MSIE 10"),a=!!navigator.userAgent.match(/Trident.*rv:11\./),i=l.querySelectorAll("iframe.wp-embedded-content"),n=0;n<i.length;n++){if(!(r=(t=i[n]).getAttribute("data-secret")))r=Math.random().toString(36).substr(2,10),t.src+="#?secret="+r,t.setAttribute("data-secret",r);if(s||a)(e=t.cloneNode(!0)).removeAttribute("security"),t.parentNode.replaceChild(e,t);t.contentWindow.postMessage({message:"ready",secret:r},"*")}}}}(window,document); </script> https://the-source.net/wp-content/uploads/Marine’s_volunteerism_spans_sports_spectrum_121020-M-ZB218-116.jpg576384by Dr. Jeremy Turner jturner@ic.edu We’ve all seen the headline. The scientific consensus is pretty clear at this point: playing tackle football causes brain damage. Study after study confirms that the game we have all come to love and is such a central part of our culture is damaging the brains of our favorite pro athletes. But unfortunately, the story doesn’t end there, as the evidence is very clear that college, high school, and even earlier exposure to football in youth leagues causes brain damage in our own children. There’s no longer a serious question as to whether football is safe. I understand the dilemma quite well. I understand the pull of the game and the role it plays in our culture. But I’m also a PhD neuroscientist where my job, for the last 22 years, has been to understand how the brain works and how it responds to damage. I’ve focused most of my work on how the brain responds to loss of hearing (by reorganizing and resulting in tinnitus or hyperacusis or other symptoms). I spend my professional life reading about the brain, teaching college students about the brain, and conducting experiments to better understand how the brain works and responds to injury. Before that, I grew up in Jacksonville, IL and played JAYFL youth football and then high school football at Routt. I loved the game. I remember walking away from plays in every practice and game with a headache or other symptoms and considered that a sign that I had done something heroic. I know now that I was killing brain cells. Recent studies make it clear that the problem is great. A whopping 99% of former pro football players studied have CTE – brain damage that expresses as an abnormal expression of the Tau protein in the brain and is associated with severe cognitive and emotional consequences such as memory problems, depression, anxiety, impulsivity, agitation, explosive tempers, sleep problems, and many more symptoms. If the problem ended there we might be satisfied in thinking that these are professional athletes, and they are paid millions of dollars to put their body on the line for our entertainment. But it doesn’t end there, as CTE is present in a stunning 91% of the brains studied from men who stopped playing football at the college level! And when looking at the brains of those who only played high school football, a striking 21% of the brains showed the damage. (As a reference, the tau protein aggregation seen is very abnormal: a recent study showed it was present in none (0%) of the control athletes who participate in a non-contact sport.) Critics of the research argue that these are extreme cases of individuals who have taken their own lives or who have died due to their symptoms and their families saw fit to donate their brains for study because they suspected something was wrong. That is a fair criticism, just as the lung cancer research world had to rely on humans who died of lung cancer to see the link. Just how pervasive the problem is, is not clear at this point. But waiting to do something about the problem until we understand everything about it is the same strategy taken by the tobacco companies decades ago regarding the link between smoking and lung cancer. There’s simply no question at this point that the act of playing football causes widespread, measurable brain damage in athletes from pee-wee leagues through high school, college and professional levels. Many of you are thinking that if we just do a better job of educating kids about concussions, that will fix it. Sorry to say that doesn’t do it at all, as concussions aren’t the problem. The real problem is the fact that a typical day of football practice might include many dozens of mild hits to the head, and each one of these hits jars the brain tissue around and causes some damage. Over the course of a single season, a high school or college player is expected to accrue roughly 1,000 such hits to the head, each one causing microscopic damage, which accumulates. So even without a single concussion, players accumulate brain damage over the course of the season that has been documented in studies of high school and college football players to lead to problems with memory, academics, emotions, and sleep. These issues are seen at some of the highest rates in linemen who don’t necessarily lead with their head or get a concussion, but who on every play explode forward to collide with another player, and in so doing, their brain jiggles around inside their skull a little. To be perfectly clear, measurable brain damage using imaging techniques, as well as memory/cognitive issues are seen even in studies of high school or college players with no documented concussions! So, it’s the many small hits to the head that cause the problem. There’s no way to make a better helmet or better train or educate students to take all such blows to the head out of the game. In fact, what we see happening is that when athletes learn more about the problem of head injury, and as high school and college regulations require students with concussions to be removed from play, the end result is that athletes don’t report their symptoms because they know that means they won’t be able to play for the rest of the game, or longer. We see the same thing at the professional level, where famous players have had concussions but later explain that they didn’t report it because it would take them out of the game. Expecting a testosterone-laden high school or college-aged student to self-report their headache or dizziness or other symptoms, which automatically get them removed from competition until a medical professional clears them to return in a later game, is the height of ignorance. Indeed, studies suggest that only a small fraction of concussion symptoms gets reported–only 1 out of...